Badger's Log - Hitting the Hobby Wall

Hello all,

Recently I've been finding hobbying a little difficult whilst at home. Last weekend I managed to finish painting up 3 Bloodcrushers and a Deathwing test model in pretty good time.

Spirits were high and I felt like I had the painting bug once again, that I wanted to finish all the half-started projects I had around. First up, were the rest of the Deathwing army.

At first it was pretty good going, they were already sprayed up, so on Saturday night I went over the undercoat to cover any gaps and get a proper solid coat. Then Sunday night, I drybrushed any Metal areas.

I got pretty confident, I thought to myself "It's only 25 models. I can get these done in a couple of nights or so at this rate..." and now, nearly 4 days later, all I've managed to do is paint about 3/4 of the bone armour on 1 terminator.

I feel like I've hit the wall...

When I get home, I don't feel like picking up the brushes to tackle the Terminators anymore, I've got no motivation to assemble and convert my Dwarfs into 40k models and I've yet to have a night where I've got home from work, in daylight and it not be raining, in order to spray my remaining Daemon models.

I'm in a hobbying lull at the moment where things don't seem to be going my way with painting especially. Personally, I like to go for quick paint jobs that get models on the table faster and I thought with Deathwing, that was pretty achievable. I underestimated how long the Bone armour colour takes to get on in a solid and even coating, which is what's consuming the vast majority of time.

Then we get onto assembling my Dwarfs, where I look at the stack of boxes and think to myself "I really can't be bothered hacking away at arms to make them have Bolters..." or other such excuses. I do want to get them done, so I can try out the Sisters of Battle WD codex for myself, but looking at the boxes and thinking how much assembly work there is to do, I'd rather suffer through painting Deathwing.

And lastly, the weather in Manchester over the last week has been absolutely shocking. Any time that I've been home and able to spray, it's been raining or vice-versa, anytime it's been dry enough to spray I've been away from home. I suppose the weather being rubbish helps in the fact that I'll stay in more and get painting done (or at least attempt to...).

So yeah, that's where I am at the moment - I thought I'd try and vent on here and also, ask for advice.

What do you guys do to try and get around "Hobby Block" ?

Cheers,
SB

Baby Got Back(log)

Morning folks,

As it's nearly that joyous time when we're free from work and you can be dragged around shops, do some DIY and more importantly, get some serious hobby time in, I thought I'd post up about my escalating backlog of hobby items.

Last night I sat down and started assembling some more Bloodcrushers, then remembered that I was half way through undercoating my first Deathwing squad, so I was torn between each. Then while driving to work today and thinking about what I needed to do to finish off my Bloodcrushers, I remembered that I've got 4 boxes of Dwarf models and associated bitz sat in a cardboard box, yet to be opened.

At one point, I was well up to scratch on my hobby backlog. I had just finished my Dark Eldar off, along with some Brotherhood of the Forge tanks and I was on course to get Deathwing things assembled and painted as I bought batches. Then I started to get to the end of a project at work, which meant no hobby time. To keep me motivated at work though, I was still purchasing bits, had my birthday around that time and also bought some things on the cheap from people.

Then, after I came out of the darkness that is overtime, I started to realise that I had a lot to catch up on and also, the impending deadline of a Doubles Tournament in November, that requires me to upgrade some older models to a tournament standard with new models.

So here's what is currently in the Badger-Cave looking for some attention (as far as I can remember!):

To Assemble:
- 3 Bloodcrushers
- 50ish Dwarfs to be made into an assortment of Forgers
- 1 Immolator
- 40 War of the Ring Uruk-Hai (I'd forgotten about these!)

To Spray:
- The above, plus...

- Daemon Prince

To Paint:
- The above, plus..
- 25 Deathwing Terminators
- 1 Deathwing Chaplain
- 1 Deathwing Librarian
- 1 Belial + Magnetised Arms
- 2 Multi Melta Dreadnaughts
- 2 Drop Pods
- 2 Land Speeders
- 20 Marines
- 6 Ravenwing Bikers
- 5 Bretonnian Mounted Yeomen
- 2 Bretonnian Damsels
- 8 Bretonnian Grail Knights
- 1 Grail Reliquae with 20 Battle Pilgrims
- 3 Pegasus Knights
- 10 Knights Errant

Misc:
- Wash Guard Vehicles to match the Infantry.
- Wash Necron Army to match other armies.
- Buy 2 more Daemon Princes to finish off my Khorne Daemon list.

And that's without including the other stuff I would like to buy over the next few months... I don't like having a backlog when it comes to the hobby, it's something I like to get rid of as quick as possible.

My aim for the rest of this month is to get my Daemon stuff assembled and painted, alongside the Deathwing section of my Dark Angels. From then on, the priorites are:
- Assemble my Dwarf stuff
- Finish the rest of the Dark Angels
- Make some headway with the Bretonnians, either to get playing Fantasy a bit more or to flog them on eBay.

Overall, I want to get my Dark Angels, Chaos Daemons and Brotherhood of the Forge completed by the end of the year. Any progress I can make on Fantasy / WOTR stuff is a bonus for when I get to play them.

What about you guys then? How are your backlogs looking (assuming you have one) and have you got any goals over the next weeks, months or years?

SB.

Road to Warrington Pt:3

As promised here are a few more pictures of my "finished" models. I have now got around half of the army painted up and am hoping to take a few more pictures tonight to showcase the army/models and to go with my battle report.
First up are my mass armour, there are two Vindicator's, three Rhino's and a Dreadnought all sat ready to cause pain. I have painted two of the Rhino's and both Vindicator's over the weekend, though they are still awaiting the Lightning Detailing, and a bit of weathering (I got some weathering powder from Forge World with the third Rhino's doors). The third Rhino isn't painted because I didn't get the doors until Sunday, but that will be high on my list of what's left to do!

Here is a close up of my burning skulls on one of my Vindicator's, I thought it would be a good "fear" causer to see your fellows thrown onto a blazing fire on the back of a big gun. It also gave me a reason to have a go at painting fire (which didn't work out too well). Instead of working up to the tips I worked down to the fire, but a quick wash of Baal Red blended the paints together and gave it a passable look.

My tin of 46 guys, not really a good transport system, but it works, and they are so crammed in they barely move! I have 18 painted Night Lords, with 12 men undercoated and ready. My main problem is that I don't get my remaining 10 Night Lord Heads and Shoulder Pads, until Friday, which means, that some men are currently only half built!!! I am planning on just painting them up and then painting the heads and shoulder pads separately and gluing them on last minute (on the day if need be)

Nothing has been based yet as that is my last thing to do, the week running up to the tournament. I hope to get 10 men based a day, easy to do I hope!

Road to Warrington Pt:2

So as promised I am going to show you what I have done so far (and what I have left to do).

First up is my 10 men I have painted, they took me 45 minutes per man (need to speed up) I have yet to base or detail the men. They will all be based in a similar manner to the Dreadnought (as below), as for the detailing I may leave that until after the tournament, though I am aiming to get at least 50% of the models detailed before.

As you can see, they have they are not gold like the Night Lords in the Codex, as I prefered the Silver with the Idea of Moonlight. I also painted all the faces with skull plates, which I found out about in the Night Lords Novels. There is a mix of Chaos, and Vanilla Space Marine bits that helpt to make them look like scavengers, 10,000yrs is a long time to keep wearing the same armour and using the same weapons.

I am proudest of this model in my entire collection, it took me roughly 5 hours from undercoating to finish, though I was playing on FIFA at the same time. It is using the exact same colour as the men (I brewed up a batch that is ready for use on the rest of the army).

This is the basing I am planning on using with the rest of the army. It was just a base coat of Adeptus Battlegrey with a Devlan Mud wash. However, its the detailing I am proud of, I painted cracks onto the base, as this is a warzone, the pavement isn't going to be undamaged. I got a blood effect by mixing Scab Red with PVA glue, this gave it a chunky liquidy look which suited the purpose perfectly, and I will be repeating on other weapons and bases.

Here you can see the lightning effect I am planning on using on the rest of the army, this took very little time and produced a good effect (though my picture doesn't do it justice, if I say so myself) It is simply, Ice Blue with a Skull White topping. I used the same technique as the cracks on the base, which was start fat get thin, I then added various offshoots and painted the White slightly off centre to give it a moving and light effect.

Next up, two of the Rhino's still to be painted, there is still one more to be built, just waiting on some more Night Lords Doors. The hatch, guns, and gun turret hatches have not been glued down so they can be opened, removed, changed and so on as much as I want.

The remaining men to be painted (The terminators need to be built as those are old model I used as stand-ins) I have base-coated and put the silver trim on 9 of the men, ready to be finished at weekend.

And lastly, a VERY blurry shot of my Vindicator (on its side?) This has been undercoated and is ready for painting. There is a second Vindicator waiting to be built next to the Rhino.

So this weekend, among moving junk and keeping the room tidy, I am planning to get every model built (excluding the Rhino, and a few heads/shoulderpads I am waiting on) and to have my remaining 20 troops painted, and the two built Rhinos. That then will leave me with, 5 Terminators, 2 Vindicators, 9 Possessed, Rhino, and Chaos Lord to be painted the next weekend.

Bring on Warrington!

Road to Warrington

So, the Warrington GT is 15 days away and I have a 1750pt army to paint, not only that, but it is my most ambitious project to date painting wise. I plan on taking my Night Lords, I started two weeks ago with 20 Chaos Marines which were bought for me last August, I had painted one, but was unhappy with the results due to an unsteady hand.

On Monday I practiced using a list that I planned to take (the only list tampering game I would be able to play) and decided to drop my Pred (which failed misserably) for a second Vindicator, and swap around my Terminator weapons slightly, the list I ended up with goes something like this:

HQ
Chaos Lord
Daemon Weapon
Personal Icon
135

Elites
Dreadnought
Plasma cannon
105

9 Possessed
Champion
Rhino
279

5 Terminators
Reaper Autocannon
Twin LC
Power fist
Combi-flamer
Combi-melta
205

Troops
10 Chaos Marines
Plasma gun
Melta
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power wpn
Plasma pistol
Rhino
265

10 Chaos Marines
Plasma gun
Missile launcher
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power wpn
215

10 Chaos Marines
Melta
Heavy Bolter
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power fist
Rhino
255

Heavy Support
Vindicator
Daemonic possession
145

Vindicator
Daemonic Possession
145

Total - 1749

So there you have it, I will explain my choices now...

From what I have read, the Night Lords enjoy causing great amounts of fear in their enemies, so I thought I would do the same, which is why I have two possessed Vindicators, and a Dreadnought. I also chose the Dread because I bought the Forge World one, and loved the model. I have avoided taking almost anything Chaos related as the Night Lords don't worship the Chaos Gods in general, they are willing to use Chaos though. The possessed are degenerate battle brothers that have been herded up and are kept in line by the Champion (who will be modeled as a un-mutated Night Lord). The Chaos Lord has a daemon-weapon to represent a strong and experienced fighter. The Vindicators are Possessed, to represent the Crew being battle hardend and also, who doesn't want a Vindicator that can't be stunned/shaken. As for the Icons, it allows me to re-roll Leadership tests, again, battle hardend, and they are "Teleport homers" for my Terminators.

I have 15 days to now build, a Rhino, a Vindicator, 5 terminators and 5~ men, and then paint, them and 25 other men, two more Rhino's and a second Vindicator!!!

I am going to do a report every time I get something finished, starting tomorrow, with what I have painted and built to date.

A look over the years

I thought that seeing as my Birthday is just a week away (no-one told me!) I would take a trip down memory lane and look at some of the models I have built and painted over the last six years.

My first army that I bought, built AND painted was my Eldar, before that was my Daemonhunters (but Suicide Badger painted them). With my Eldar I had an Idea for a Khainite (Khornate) Exodite army that had scavenged weapons and armour from battlefields. My list was weak as I didn't understand about having a mission for each unit properly, and having units which could fill multiple roles. Although I had a list which consisted of

The Avatar
12 Storm Guardians
12 Guardians
10 Pathfinders
6 Fire Dragons
10 Banshees
and a Fire Prism

with various other bits added on, I think I did well and tried to use ideas I had read and heard to adapt, but the problem was these ideas didn't fit my playstyle which I began to figure out as I got bored with my Eldar. Below is one of my "Conversion" attempts and one of the first models I painted, which was a Tau Devilfish turned Wave Serpent.


As you can see, it was just hacked at with a knife then painted black and red with a roughly painted Khorne symbol, not my best painting skills, but was a start.

I fumbled around with a couple of armies after 1-2 years of Eldar and decided I enjoyed Chaos, as the suited my playstyle of throw some men at the enemy and see what sticks. The problem was I had big ideas for my Chaos and I am still working on making them into a World Eater and Night Lord coalition with the beginnings on mutation showing on some models.

I finally decided to do a Raven Guard army as I loved the idea in the 4th Edition Space Marine Codex, the problem being they had a new book, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. My biggest conversion was this Land Speeder Storm (about a month before they announced the official model)

There was very little special about it, I kept the conversions simple, swapping the Marine bodies for Scouts and adding some antennae along with a cluster of Guard grenade launchers for the Cerebus launcher. This was also my first use of 'Ard coat and the Decals, I would have painted the better but I only spent two weeks on them so the white didn't work properly (a lesson for when I started basing my World Eaters, and painting my brighter Space Wolves and Grey Knights)

Next I turned to Space Wolves which I had put off when I heard about the new Codex, I gave it a quick read through and spotting they kept the Scouts outflanking behind the enemy and Long Fangs splitting their shots I lept onto buying 1500pts for a tournament which was a month away. I opted for a Logan terminator army with fire support from one unit of Long Fangs with Grey Hunters in Rhinos to rush for objectives or hang back.

This was my attempt at making Logan Grimnar as I HATE the metal model, I did some mild conversions to make his Axe look like it could be used as a Hammer, and giving him a "wrist" mounted stormbolter, which was just put on the back of a power fist. This was my first attempt at Fur, and was very pleased my Idea worked of using bestial brown with my newfound love of Washes. I also managed to paint him bright colours without them looking spodgy and washed out. I have now adapted my list to use less terminators and more men on foot led my Ragnar (which I also converted)

My biggest conversion was my attempt at a Tyrannofex, I used a Carnifex and ALOT of greenstuff. It is probably one of my best conversions to date and when painted will hopefully look like it is supposed to belong in a Tyranid army.

Keeping with the Tyranids I think one of my best painted conversions/dioramas is my Parasite of Mortex clawing the face off a Salamander (to encourage Angryman to get painting his Salamanders). My Tyranids were painted to look rotten and sickly seeing as I loved the Venomthrope model and rules along with them being started just after my stag do when I felt very very ill. I used brown and green washes which made the models stand out and gave them some definition where my painting skills couldn't. The Salamander was also fun for me to paint, especially the power axe which I spent two hours on to get the red looking like it was rippling lava.

My most recent painting was my six man Deathwatch Kill Team. These guys represent the pinnacle of my painting abilities to date and if you compare them (and the Tyranid) with my Eldar you can see that in six years I have improved if not largely. I managed to layer the whites/parchment to give it a bright colour rather that a spodgey greyish black. I also used a similar method on the Lightning Claws as with the Salamanders Axe giving it a flahsing effect.

So, The point of this post (other than to make myself feel better that I have improved) was to say how we have all changed and advanced in certain areas. I no longer JUST take what models I think look cool, though that does play a big part. I have figured out how I enjoy playing and what my basic tactics usually are. I enjoy hitting the opponent hard and fast using short range firepower to assist my combat troops, while keeping a few heavy weapons at the back to keep my flanks safe, I also try to take at least one unit that can deep strike or outflank.

I now know with conversions sometimes the subtlest changes are the best, a weapon or head swap and repositioning of a model can make it a thousand times better than chopping and changing every last drop.

I have also learnt alot about painting, layering is important, building up the colours helps to get the shade you want. Most importantly, washes make a half decent paint job ten times better.

So, how far have you all come in the time you have been in this hobby, my six years have seen alot of money spent, but some good friends earned and tips and pointers learnt.

Motivation

I just wanted to leave a quick question before going on holiday (in 10 minutes!!!).

How do you get motivated to build/paint/play?

I find it very hard to get motivated to paint, but I have found that my motivation lies in books. When I read a good book I get inspired to recreate the army or characters that took part. Recently I bought a mounted Empire army after reading the Legend of Sigmar trilogy. I have a model to represent Sigmar who will either be Emperor Karl Franz with Ghal-Maraz, or in smaller games a Templar Grand Master with the Hammer of Judgement. I also have a Standard Bearer which will be Pendrag who was Sigmars closest friend and was identifiable with having a silver Dwarf made hand. Lastly I have my Warrior Priest of Sigmar (Ulric in this army) who is Sigmars Sword-Brother Wolfgart, this guy carried a giant sword (counts as Great Hammer).

I have many other armies inspired by a good book, but that is what I am working on at the moment.

So, to repeat my original question, what gets you motivated in this hobby?

Christmas and Wargaming

Morning all,

Thought I'd roll on with the blog articles whilst it's quiet in the run up to Christmas. Just quickly to talk about Christmas and Wargaming... Now, for me, Christmas is a weird one for gaming - I've got more time to do stuff, lots of new shiny toys, but never seem to get around to getting stuff sorted or playing games..

Even Marines get festive...

Hopefully if I've been very good these year, I'll be getting some more Dark Eldar stuff, to flesh the list out to about 1500 - 2000pts. More Warriors are a priority, along with some boxes of Hellions to have a squad of those and also turn some into Beastmasters, since I love the idea of that unit and also have plenty of models around the place I can use for the Beasts.

I'll also hopefully get / buy myself a full new set of brushes. Painting my Guardsmen last week was a nightmare, since most of my larger brushes have been demolished through years of painting, so I had to paint the Black armour all with a detail brush. Not fun.

As for what I want to try and get done over the Christmas break. I've got 12 Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons teams sat on my paint desk, after finishing painting 62 Guardsmen over the last week. I really want to get the HW teams painted up so I can start using Platoons more in the army, as opposed to the current "Veterans as Troops" setup I've got going now.

I've also got 4 older Commisar models to paint up, which I figure can be used to spread around the Platoons.

On top of that, I'm then planning on organising my Guard Infantry into containers, with specific weapon loadouts and then do the squad markings. I'm hoping this will go some way towards helping with my dislike for masses of Infantry and trying to get squads together during deployment.

After that, I'll hopefully make a start on my first wave of Dark Eldar stuff (Warrior squad, Wych squad, 20 Wracks, 6 Grotesques, 6 Haemonculi, Urien Rakharth, Archon, 2 Raiders, Ravager and 3 Venoms). Undercoating the vehicles will be first, then make a start on painting the infantry from there.

I think I've finally set myself on a colour scheme, using the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue as a basis. I seem to do well at using Blue in my paint schemes, plus, I'm not really up for the Edging on armour, so that rules out most of the other Kabals. The Kabal of the Obsidian Rose was pretty cool (Red majority armour, Black plates for variety) but I just don't think Red translates well on the Dark Eldar vehicles, but that debate could fill an article in itself...

Anyways... what are you guys hoping to get hobbywise for Christmas? And what are you hoping to get done over the Christmas break?

If you don't hear from us in the meantime, have a Merry Christmas from MAWS40k!

Peace,
SB

[Painting] My first Night Lord!!!

Well after planning on starting Night Lords for the last well... 3 months or maybe more, I finally made a start on my first model, this is just a test model, but I was more than pleased with the paint scheme.

From the front you can see that I went for silver rather than gold. The traditional gold symbolises that ever night has a dawn. However I wanted something that was stand out but still matched the lightning, and in my opinion the silver symobolises that every night has some light (usually moonlight). A bit like the Night Lords are fighting for the light at the end of the tunnel.

This is a better shot of some of the lightning, which will be repainted as its too thick and obviously painted, but I need to get myself a white pen, or a much thinner brush. However for a first attempt at a proper detailing technique I was quite proud and hope to improve towards the end of the army.

Lastly this shows you the typical skull faceplate which I wanted to keep in the army and each will have some distinguishing feature by the end, at the moment this one is being kept plain as it has quite a daemonic look already.

So, all in all, I found it quite easy to paint this model in about half an hour, which is a long time for a basic bolter boy, but given a few more tries I think I can get these guys done a unit a day (the hour or two I get free). The hardest part is the lightning and the faces, but the overall look is worth the extra effort.

Have at it, let me know what you think of my first Night Lord, and hopefully within a week I can get the full squad painted up and a Rhino to go with them (but no promises)

What are you in it for!

I was originally going to do a post on my slow progress on a Night Lords army, but I then thought, showing off a Forge World Dread, and a Vindicator, both unpainted would be a little boring. So I will save that until I get some paint on them, but for now, I wanted to find out what you are in the hobby for. A lot of Blogs have asked this, but I want to look more in depth than just for the painting, or gaming, etc.

Firstly, I am in this hobby because I really enjoy the fluff, all the stories which I can immerse myself into and forget about my boring job and mediocre life. I enjoy building the models, though I can rarely transfer my thoughts into good looking models. The painting side, I find it hard to concentrate with as I have a Mathematical and very un-artistic mind. This means, (although I always lose) I enjoy writing a decent army list, and working out the probabilities and plans of attack and defence. But the reason I enjoy this hobby the most is because it's a chance to unwind from work, and chill out with a few mates and have a laugh. We always have something to talk about, and often compare ideas to make our armies and conversions that much better.

So, I put to you, why do you enjoy this hobby, we all know no-one is just into it because they enjoy painting. You can paint anywhere, on a canvass, or any number of other models available. So what brings the painters to this particular hobby, and not just the painters, everyone. Why do gamers chose this game, there are plenty more and a lot that play easier and smoother.

[HOBBY] The New Boys Pt 4

After a long period of inaction because of lack of money and lack of batteries for my camera (which ended up taking terrible pictures anyway) I have returned with a few pictures and short stories about 6 of my Sternguard.

Firstly, I apologise for the Quality of the pictures, they were taken on my Fiances phone, the best camera we have at the moment, I will post better ones in the future.

First up on the left we have Sergeant Jarvis and on the right is Buck

Sergeant Jarvis, usually refered to as Sarge for ease in battle is a Veteran of many raids. He favours plasma weaponry and often uses the Vengance rounds created by Cogs (the techmarine who is yet to be built) and a plasma pistol that he has aquired from past victims. He favours obliterating his foes leaving just a pile of ash. Sarge is vicious in battle and leads his Squad fearlessly into any combat.

Buck, is the newest recruit and hasn't earnt his Skull Honours yet, the equivilant of terminator honours in a standard chapter. Buck rose quickly through the ranks of his fellows and his skill with a bolter, where his nickname comes from, led him into the Forsaken Guard (Sternguard) squad. His shots are nearly always on aim and he is adept at keeping his targets alive long enough to take their still living skulls.

Next up we have Bones on the left and Roth on the Right

Obviously Bones isn't his real name, however, he has been fighting for so long that he doesn't remember his own name. Bones is the tactical department in the chapter and the only reason he hasn't raised higher is because he has refused every attempt to be "promoted". He knows that the Sergeants and Captains are always the first to be shot at when people can. Bones now tends to the Chapters dead and wounded much like an apothecary though he follows a more ritualistic way.

Roth is the second newest recruit in the Forsaken Guard and was very pleased when Buck turned up to take his old place. Roth is a scavenger and always has been even before being made into a Space Marine. His bolter is of archaic make along with his Chest armour, anything shiny is soon taken by Roth.

Lastly we have Drustos on the left and Attilas on the Right

Drustos is the squads main Vox operator and the Chapter rely on him to maintain their communications. Drustos aspires to be just like Cogs (the techmarine) and follows him around when not at war. There isn't much more to say about Drustos he is a quiet man and he will fight stoically and to the end.

Attilas is the chapters soon to be Chaplain, he also shows a large amount of psychic potential however that is completely normal for this Chapters Chaplains. The Forsaken Brotherhood do not have any Librarians instead their Chaplains maintain their beliefs of the Emperor in his Bloodthirsty state slaking his thirst on the blood of the heretic and Daemon and fight with his will manifest in their destructive powers.

For now that is it, I am currently building some Warmachine models and attempting to build one of my Tactical squads.

If you want to follow my other Blogs on this topic you will find them and the links to previous ones here http://maws40k.blogspot.com/2010/01/hobby-new-boys-pt3.html

[HOBBY] Tyranids - Painting the Swarm!

Hey all,

It's that time of the month again (no pun intended!) for the From the Warp collaborative blogpost, and the topic is... the new Tyranids!

What I thought we'd do is open up a bit of a discussion over a couple of things, first up, since we want to show some of our stuff off, I thought we'd cover how to paint Tyranids - firstly with the club's resident Tyranid monstrous Creature, Angryman, and then my attempts from starting the army a while ago (which have since been assimilated into Angryman's Nid Swarm).

Hive Fleet Behemoth


These guys are Angryman's Hive Fleet, painted in Behemoth colours and in his own words:

Spray painted chaos black, once dry I’ll paint the fleshy parts with mecrite red, touching up the carapace or any bits you don’t want red with chaos black. I’ll then use devlin mud to wash over all the red fleshy parts.

I will get Ice blue and dry brush (dip the end of the brush in the paint and wipe 99% of it off) and dry brush the carapace so that the ends and raised parts then get a light layer of ice blue.

I’ll repeat this with skull white but an even lighter dry brush on top of the ice blue one. For the eyes I’ll use snot green (just a little bit to show they have eyes) and I’ll paint the tongue in the same colour.

For the teeth I’ll paint them codex grey, then skull white then dry brush them with bleached bone. For any claws I’ll dry brush them (using the above technique) codex grey and they a very light dry brush with skull white down one edge of them. for the spine fists I dry brushed the ‘wire’ and the fist part liche purple then lightly dry brushed over that with snot green

Hive Fleet Hydra
This was at one point, and may be in the future, my personal Hive fleet, named after the Hydra as I couldn't come up with another name and it was my favourite Imperial vehicle, also a mythical creature.

It's been a while since I painted these and things may have changed but it went a little something like this:

First off, they were undercoated in chaos black and given an all over basecoat of Graveyard Earth (this was before Foundation paints).

The next step was to give the full model a wash of Chestnut Ink to shade the crevices and give the entire thing a sickly shine.

Then, the Carapace and bone areas were painted over with Kommando Khaki (if I remember correctly) and then stippled / heavily drybrushed with Bleached bone to give the effect on the Carapace similar to insects.

Teeth and claws were then rest back with Chaos Black.

Eyes, weapon tubes and anything resembling poison was painted with Snot Green.

Hive Fleet Kraken

This guy technically isn't part of a Nid swarm anymore, but I'm sure you'll see where he belongs in a couple of weeks... so apologies for the rather cropped image.

He was painted up in the style of Hive Fleet Kraken, but needing to be painted extremely quickly! So as follows:

The first step was to undercoat him in Black, followed by painting all the skin with Dheneb Stone, then the Carapace was Mechrite Red.

The tongue was painted Ultramarine Blue, and the Claws, teeth and eyes were Chaos Black.

I then washed the entire model with Badab Black wash and voila. Done.

Overall, the schemes are extremely quick to paint, since a lot of models require painting and I'm no doubt intending to carry on painting Hive Fleet Hydra colours when / if I return to the Tyranids.

I think really the key points to painting Tyranids are:

- Speed, pick a scheme thats fast to paint, but also one that allows you a bit of extra time on special / larger models. I found some things look quite good on Gaunts, but awful on the Genestealers I painted.

- Drybrushing. Drybrushing the Nids helps so much, since a lot of the weapons are compact and pulled into the body and also with not many flat areas, they pick up drybrushing really well.

- Inks / Washes. The tyranids have a lot of crevaced areas that Inking works a treat on. Also, when using inks it gives them a slimey feel, handy if you want your Tyranids to be more Space bugs than space Dinosaurs.

- Foundation Paints. When these guys were released things got ramped up significantly... anyone who painted Hive Fleet Behemoth colours before foundation paints, I take my hat off to you!

So how do you guys paint your Tyranids, or if you're not a Tyranid player, do you have any ideas on what Tyranid paint schemes look / would look good on the tabletop?

SB.

[HOBBY] The New Boys Pt.3

I have returned after debating on the colour scheme for a long while I have come up with a few ideas, I know that I want the basic colour a shade of white, probably along the lines of bleached bone, but with white highlights to lighten it up and a wash of blue to make them look more spectral. This first model is my favourite at the moment but there is still room for improvement.

I also know that the secondary colour would be red, this would be to represent the bloodiness of their raids and culture however I couldn't decide on a definite pattern. I was going to have some form of Heraldry or a Skull icon on the left shoulder. The right shoulder is going to have a scroll on it with the Marines name written on and maybe some squad markings. The fists are going to be red to represent the blood of their enemies over years of raiding, similar to the crimson fists.

In the bottom picture I considered the red reaching up the arms in a flame or blood spatter pattern as a sign of veterancy the higher it went the more senior the marine.

I have posted a picture of the three main ideas I have, however if you find any better ones, feel free to comment and give your feedback.

If you want to see the first two parts follow this link and the link at the end of that article, this is the only way we know of linking them together.

http://maws40k.blogspot.com/2010/01/hobby-new-boys_13.html

[HOBBY] The New Boys Pt.2

Following on from my article yesterday where I gave you an idea to what my new Space Marine army is going to look like and why I chose it, today I am going to start going into the fluff of the Chapter which is yet to be named as I cant find anything suitable and not super corny so any ideas are welcome, for now they are named “The Brotherhood Of The Forsaken”.

The general fluff will be along the lines of, “The Brotherhood Of The Forsaken was founded in the 13th founding where there is little known of which chapters were created and which survived. The Brotherhood Of The Forsaken thought dead by the Imperium has become self sufficient and tribal, while still maintaining the structure and discipline of the modern day Astartes. The chapter hold a larger number of Land raiders than any other chapter, this may be because of the constant raids that they carry out upon anyone they see as beneath them, and their Techmarines are often called upon to increase the power output of their vehicles, mainly their land raiders for a fast and devastating raiding party which the chapter excel at. The techmarines are also highly trained fighters and often lead squads into battle to help keep the vehicles running at maximum capacity. Before a raid the Brotherhood Of The Forsaken adorn their Land Raiders with Skulls and skeletons of their recently beaten foes.”

The initial idea for the paint scheme is going to be, white with a pale blue wash followed by highlights and a black wash followed by a second light blue/white wash. With red trim or armour pieces, the hands are going to be red on the grunts like crimson fists and more of the arm is red as they gain veterency, going in a sort of Jagged pattern similar to the white scars. I will post some test pictures as soon as I am able to.

For the last Edition of this article Follow this link http://maws40k.blogspot.com/2010/01/hobby-new-boys.html